In today’s edition of Bitcoin in Brief it seems that Twitter is starting to get a grip on the impersonator bots that have dogged the platform all year. We’ve also got news of a crypto meetup that’s only for sceptics, and it turns out that Bitmain is even richer than anyone thought.

Bitmain Adds a Couple Billion to Its Valuation

As we reported earlier this month, Chinese mining behemoth Bitmain has been valued at $12 billion ahead of its IPO. That figure has now been revised upward, with another $2 billion added to its price tag. Fortune reports how Bitmain pulled in a profit of $1.1 billion in Q1 of 2018 alone. To place that in context, the total value of all BTC mined in the same period was around $1.3 billion. It seems there really is more money in selling shovels than in chasing digital gold. There’s no official date for Bitmain’s IPO yet, other than that it’s coming “very soon”.

Winning the Battle Against Twitter Bots

Twitter bots, which have plagued the network all year, imitating influencers and conning the gullible out of their ether, appear to be waning. While it is to early to declare victory, Twitter has been moving faster to shut down copycat accounts. Previously, reporting fake accounts required that the complainant verify their own identity using ID before Twitter would take action. A number of users have reported less bot activity in their tweet replies, where the scammers usually congregate. It seems all those @’s directed at Jack Dorsey in recent weeks have been heard.

The Crypto Meetup for Sceptics

Ever since bitcoin’s inception, grassroots meetups have sprung up around the world as a means of uniting fellow crypto believers and educating the curious on the wonderful world of bitcoin. The organizers of such events are inherently bullish on cryptocurrency, as you would expect, but there’s an exception to that rule. Fudsters United is a Brooklyn meetup for those who are “skeptical about blockchain, cryptocurrency, Tether, forks, and the get rich quick proposition in the crypto bubble…We will discuss the shady participants, shady exchanges, blatant scams, ICOs, market manipulation, and hyped up news that fuels the mania surrounding crypto.” Bitcoin pessimists in the area are invited along to share drinks while spreading FUD with like-minded crypto bears.

Fudsters United

Software Company Perfectial Starts Accepting Crypto

Perfectial, a large software company with offices in the US, UK, and Ukraine, has announced that it’s accepting cryptocurrency payments in the form of BTC, ETH, and LTC. “We expect this payment method to be a more fitting option for companies that have received funding with crypto assets as it will allow them to avoid making a conversion,” said Ivan Kohut, the company’s CTO and co-founder. “Cryptocurrencies are borderless money that allows making our services reachable. On top of that, they help to circumvent certain limitations that conventional payment systems like Paypal have.”

Bitsong Plans a Blockchain-Based Music Streaming Platform

Bitsong is the latest project attempting to bring music to the blockchain with the goal of eliminating intermediaries. As with most projects of this nature, the aim is to enable artists to maximize their earnings and to control the distribution of their work. It’s going to have its work cut out in dethroning the music streaming incumbents, but having signed up a bunch of solid artists and DJs so far, Bitsong seems confident that it can succeed where others have faltered.

What is Bitcoin?

What is bitcoin to you – electronic cash? A store of value? Digital gold? Something else entirely? A widely shared post this week by Nic Carter has tracked the many different hats bitcoin has worn over the years. Many of these designations overlap, and it would be fair to say that bitcoin (be it BTC or BCH) means different things to different people. Visions of Bitcoin lays out the primary roles that have been assigned to bitcoin to date. Given the rate at which cryptocurrency evolves, it’s possible that bitcoin could yet take on many more mantles in the years to come.

How bitcoin’s interpretation has evolved over the years

What stories caught your eye from today’s Bitcoin in Brief? Let us know in the comments section below.

Kai's been playing with words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $19. It's long gone. He's previously written white papers for blockchain startups and is especially interested in P2P exchanges and DNMs.

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